HRH The Prince of Wales
The Burlington House Cartoon (c 1499-1500)
by Leonardo da Vinci
I am delighted that the National Gallery has opened its doors again. How we all missed being able to visit the nation’s museums and galleries that hold so many of our cultural treasures. To choose a “favourite” picture from such an array is virtually impossible, but I must say that Leonardo da Vinci’s Burlington House Cartoon holds a particularly special place in my heart.
It may seem strange to choose what is essentially a drawing, from a collection of remarkable paintings, but I suspect it goes back to my childhood when I used to marvel at the Leonardo drawings in the Royal Library at Windsor. They have always been part of my life and I love his obvious fascination with nature, science and the human condition.
Drama, GB 2013
Mansfield nimmt das kleine Mädchen bei sich auf und erzieht sie als Dido Elizabeth Belle zusammen mit seiner anderen Ziehtochter, die auch Elizabeth heiÃt. Dido und Elizabeth wachsen als Schwestern auf und sollen so früh wie möglich verheiratet werden. Doch im England des 18. Jahrhunderts ist Didos gesellschaftlicher Stand zwar ein Privileg, ihre Hautfarbe aber ein unübersehbarer Makel. Dido spürt, dass sie jeden Tag neu kämpfen muss, um als gleichwertig angesehen zu werden. In der Gesellschaft und in ihrer Familie. Sie lernt nicht nur, ihre Herkunft zu akzeptieren und mit Stolz zu repräsentieren, sondern auch die zeitgenössische Rolle der Frau zu begreifen und zu hinterfragen.
The 24-year-old actress plays the role of Marina Thompson, who comes to stay with the Featherington family while being introduced to society.
“I’d seen
Belle the film about Dido Elizabeth Belle who was a mixed race aristocrat in the Georgian period of time and I saw that film and was like ‘wow it would be so amazing to play that character but its already been made, I’m probably not gonna be in a period drama simply because of my race,’”
Ruby recalled in a video interview with Daily Mail.
She added, “Then obviously getting the casting through from
Participants in the annual Jane Austen Regency Costumed Parade walk through the centre of Bath in England on September 9, 2017 [File: Matt Cardy/Getty Images]
There are more than a few universally acknowledged truths when it comes to writing romance: the course of true love should not run smooth, lovers should be beautiful and readers generally prefer a Happily Ever After (‘HEA’ as it’s known in the romance community).
While love stories are still routinely sidelined by some academics and critics, the politics of love, sex and desire, and the stories we tell about them, cannot be overestimated. There is absolutely nothing apolitical about love stories because our popular ideas of romance are a colonial hangover, steeped in the reactionary values of the imperial 19th century. At this point isn’t it worth asking: what’s universal about our modern idea of love?
As Lord Chief Justice, Mansfield ruled on significant slavery cases including the Somerset case of an escaped slave due to be sent back to Jamaica, and the Zong massacre in which the crew, faced with insufficient drinking water, threw their human cargo overboard then tried to collect the insurance. I see Mansfield as a conflicted liberal gentleman who makes a narrow judgement in the James Somerset case that did not free every former slave in England. The Zong case is not a moral case about people being murdered but an insurance case. When he ruled that the owners couldn t get the insurance, he calls the slave trade odious and says only law can change it, but he doesn t attempt to change that law.